A Coupled Nonlinear Discrete-Time Controller and Observer Designs for Under-actuated Autonomous vehicles with Application to a Quadrotor Aerial Robot

Abstract

This paper addresses the problem of a combined discrete-time nonlinear tracking controller-observer design procedure for a class of underactuated autonomous vehicles with configuration (position and orientation) measurements and modelled via Lagrangian approach; we show the asymptotic stability of the closed loop-dynamics using Lyapunov analysis to guarantee the desired objectives of the tracking controller coupled with the observer (software sensor). The combined observer-control design techniques are applied to an autonomous quadrotor aerial robot. Simulation results are also provided to show the effectiveness of the proposed techniques